A forty-film festival of gun toting, bank robbing, alien blasting, and crimefighting badassss leading ladies in films spanning genres and decades from the silent era to the twenty-tens. Featuring Maggie Cheung, Pam Grier, Gena Rowlands, Michelle Yeoh, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Crawford,  Barbara Stanwyck, Tamara Dobson, Faye Dunaway, Jodie Foster, Uma Thurman and more!   

I am delighted to share the news of this fabulous film series, not so much in a critic’s voice as in a fan girl’s. Here are some of my favorite films ever, with much to offer discerning people of all genders and preferences. Though action films can range from goofy to cinema high art, these bring so much pleasure that they make  my list of desert island movies. 

I will begin with “The Heroic Trio.” You may be familiar with Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung, but the third star in this Hong Kong action pic was my favorite, Anita Mui. A huge canto-pop star once known as “the Chinese Madonna “, she left us very young and did not achieve the international fame she deserved.  If you can’t make it to NYC, stream it to enjoy watching three beautiful talents perform heroic martial art feats. Many films in this genre feature gender bending, cross-dressing, and bisexuality, and some are finally available with subtitles, so check it out!  

If you aren’t familiar with Gena Rowlands, star of “A Woman Under the Influence,” be sure to see “Gloria.” Rowlands was one of a kind, working with her husband John Cassavetes in this tour-de-force. Also playing is “Bonnie and Clyde,” probably the first great film I ever saw in a movie theater. Arthur Penn’s 1967 masterpiece with Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and several other brilliant actors, holds up well and is worth an extra viewing. And you haven’t seen the camp classic “Johnny Guitar” with Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge, it’s a must. 

Several well-known and popular films, like the Alien series with Sigourney Weaver, The Hunger Games franchise with Jennifer Lawrence, and “Kill Bill” with Uma Thurman, as well as quite a few Pam Greer titles made the cut, including my favorite, Tarantino’s “Jackie Brown.” 

“Set it Off,” one of the best mainstream lesbian films ever, stars Jada Pinkett Smith, Viveca Fox, and Queen Latifah as a dyke. And finally, a B-minus movie at best, “Ms 45,” is notable for being an early female revenge film, featuring a young woman who is raped more than once, and takes revenge with a semi-automatic pistol. It’s worth seeing as a groundbreaker, but a more artful and contemporary alternative would be Emerald Fennell’s (“Saltburn”) “Promising Young Woman,” a masterful but underrated movie starring Carey Mulligan.